Wandering Far Afield…

It seems I either read (for work or pleasure) or do genealogy in a lot of my off time. This past week has been spent reading but the two weeks before that I wandered far off my path following a distant line by marriage after realizing a friend and co-worker’s family showed up a page after my own in a Kent County, Michigan. I doubt we’re actually related but it is always fascinating to me how small the world is.

But in my “wandering”—and it truly is wandering because this is not the family living near my friend but another offshoot from the neighborhood—I found more information about the Botruff families of Kent County who are tied tightly to my Helsel and Morningstar families.

Jacob and Mary Helsel Morningstar (my 3rd Great Grandparents) had a daughter, Lavinia, also known as “Viney,” who married William Henry Botruff. William was the eldest of nine children born to Adam and Barbara (Hammer) Botruff who had come to Michigan from West Sparta, Livingston, New York in the 1850s. His next sibling, Isaac J., married Mary’s cousin (and Jacob’s sister-in-law) Melissa Helsel Morningstar. Also, William and Viney’s daughter Alice married her first cousin once removed (and Mary’s nephew), Darius Helsel. Additionally, Mary and Jacob’s son, William, lived with Adam and Barbara Botruff at the time of the 1870 Census and that same year Norman Morningstar (I have no idea who he belongs to) lived in the next farm with Isaac’s family. The Botruffs also tie into the Magoon and Hoyt families in Kent County.

An additional fun find… I knew Isaac was a veteran of the 3rd Michigan Infantry but I found a fabulous biography of him on Steve Soper’s blog here.